1. The Field of the Invention
The invention generally relates to journaling e-mail messages. More specifically, the invention relates to journaling envelope information from e-mail messages.
2. Description of the Related Art
To comply with various legal regulations, corporate record-keeping, information tracking, legal discovery requests and the like, it may be desirable to archive e-mail information. In fact, various financial, health and security regulations require archiving communications within the organization. Such regulations include for example, the Sarbanes-Oxley Act, SEC rule 17A-4, NASD 3110 and 3111, the Gramm-Leach-Bliley Act, The Health-Care and Insurance Portability and Accountability Act Of 1996, The Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act Of 2001, etc.
One category of e-mail archiving is known as e-mail journaling. Journaling allows organizations to record e-mail communications within an organization. An e-mail journaling system should be able to readily provide certain information. For example, the system should be able to provide information about who received copies of a given message. The journaling system should be able to provide information about what messages a given sender sent in a given time period and who received those messages. A journaling system should be able to provide information about what messages were received by a given recipient in a given time period and who sent those messages.
Thus, e-mail journaling ideally records several different types of information. One type of information is the content in the body of an e-mail message. This information includes the message that is sent or the textual communication between a sender and the recipient. The content of an e-mail message, for example, including a message header, may further include a message id which is a unique serial number that specifically identifies a particular e-mail message. Other types of content may include information in the to:, from:, cc (carbon copy):, and bcc (blind carbon copy): fields. The content in these fields, (e.g., in message headers) identify the sender and who the sender discloses as recipients of the e-mail message. An e-mail message, for various reasons, may not reach all of the recipients identified by the sender, or may reach other recipients not specifically identified by the sender.
An e-mail envelope may be used by a sending server to determine where a particular e-mail message should be sent. The e-mail envelope contains the sender and intended recipients of the e-mail message. This information is used to route messages in a topology for delivery to an appropriate e-mail box. Envelope information may change as an e-mail message is routed through a topology. For example, when a distribution list is expanded, actual e-mail addresses designated by the distribution list may be added to the envelope. The envelope is typically discarded once an e-mail message is received.
A number of different methods have been used to accomplish e-mail journaling. For example, one system caused a message to be delivered to a mailbox established for maintaining an e-mail journal by placing the e-mail address of the mailbox for the e-mail journal in a bcc field. This method has drawbacks in that various actual recipients may be left off of the message delivered to the journaling mailbox. For example, this method does not allow recipients that received an e-mail through a bcc field address or recipients added as a result of expansion of a distribution list to be recorded as having received a particular e-mail. Additionally, recipients that may not have actually received the e-mail message may appear in the e-mail message delivered to the mailbox for the e-mail journal. As mentioned previously, the recipients specified in the to: and cc: fields are the recipients specified by a sender and may not be actual recipients who received the e-mail message.
Additionally, if an e-mail specifies a distribution list in the to:, cc:, or bcc fields, the distribution list may not accurately reflect the actual recipients who received the e-mail. Distribution lists present a particular problem in that by their very nature they change over time. Members of a distribution list at one period of time may not be the same members of the distribution list at a different period of time due to changes in corporate structure, personnel changes, and the like. Another method of e-mail journaling is accomplished by maintaining an e-mail mailbox similar to an outbox which stores messages and envelope information sent by a particular user. This method, however, does not solve the problem of identifying recipients that received an e-mail message by virtue of their membership in a distribution list. What would therefore be advantageous is a journaling system that is able to journal envelope information including a best effort to identify specific recipients.